As has been widely reported, Pope Francis began his papacy with an already strong relationship with the Jewish community. Yet only time will tell if this pope will put the final nail in the coffin of Christian anti-Judaism: namely, an official end to the absurd notion that Christian faith produces more compassion and mercy in the human heart than does the Jewish faith.

It is worth noting that in addition to his expressions of solidarity with Argentina’s Jewish community, Pope Francis, while archbishop of Buenos Aires, participated in a Jewish-Catholic Tzedaka service; a charity effort where Jewish and Catholic volunteers went out – together – distributing aid to the poor and downtrodden of Buenos Aires.

Arguably, inter-faith Tzedaka-like service programs could be a template for a healthy, and I would argue very necessary, reform of Catholic religious life: specifically, the kind of reform that would help to end the utter fiction that Christians are more loving and compassionate than Jews.

Of all the teachings of Jesus that Christians are capable of summarily jettisoning, this one might take the cake:

Be on guard against performing religious acts for people to see. Otherwise expect no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, for example, do not blow a horn before you in synagogues and streets like hypocrites looking for applause. You can be sure of this much, they are already repaid. In giving alms you are not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. (Matthew 6: 1-4)

I’ve often wondered why those outside the Christian faith, including Jews, seem to do better with this instruction of Jesus than do some Christians. Many people seem to know, instinctively, that ostentatious displays of mercy are linked to ulterior motives. Yet it is nothing short of tragic that millions upon millions of Catholics still drink the Kool-Aid that gets them to believe that those individuals who show off their “good works” and use those “good works” as a source of power, status and influence are doing the will of God, as opposed to what they are actually doing: creating social, ecclesiastical, political and oftentimes, monetary, capital for themselves.

That the founder of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ, warned against the dangers of false mercy – performing good deeds for no other purpose than to pursue power, status, and adulation, namely all the spokes of a dis-equilibriated ego – is the mother of all ironies. I will leave it to religious historians to debate how we got from A) Jesus who expressly warned against such practices to B) Christians who routinely incorporate such activities into their social domination stratagems.

Though the Second Vatican Council greatly advanced Catholic-Jewish relations, specifically by revoking the violence-inducing charge of deicide against the Jewish people, the legacy of Christian moral supremacy lives on in Catholicism, and indeed all of Christendom.

An inter-faith Tzedaka-like reform of the Catholic Church’s religious orders could help end that nearly two millennia-old absurdity that simply believing in Jesus as the son of God – even if that belief could be outwardly verified, which of course it cannot – makes a person a more loving, caring, and all-around more moral, human being than not believing that Jesus is the son of God.

It is that false belief that is the very bedrock of historic Christian anti-Semitism.

Mercy is a work of the human heart, and it can come from any one of God’s children. It is by no means the province of just one faith. By issuing a papal decree that all non-worship, non-evangelization programs and activities by Catholic religious orders – namely works of charity and mercy – must pro-actively strive to incorporate men and women from all religious backgrounds, Pope Francis could help throw the aforementioned poisonous Kool-Aid down the drain where it belongs.

As Jesus Christ so clearly warned his flock, there is a vast gulf between the authentic mercy of the human heart, and false “mercy” that is so commonly used by human beings to advance their own interests, particularly religious status, power and influence.

As I touched upon in this article, too many children have had their lives torn apart by sexual abusers in the Catholic Church who deliberately used false mercy as their source of raw power and influence over others.

Too many Jews have been murdered throughout the centuries because Catholic priests and prelates taught that Jews were less capable of love and compassion for other human beings simply because they were not Christian.

My hope, for Catholics and Jews, and indeed all people whose lives have been adversely affected in some way by Catholic religious, is that Pope Francis will end the scourge of false mercy and articulate this most basic truth: Authentic mercy is from the human heart itself, and cannot be annexed by anyone.

For any Christian to assert, or imply, that their faith in Jesus Christ provides them with a more merciful heart than Jews, or others who are not Christian, is nothing more than an expression of the human will to dominate others. It has nothing to do with love.

Indeed, it is just another form of human cruelty.

5 Responses to “Will Pope Francis Take Jewish-Catholic Relations to the Next Level?”

The Christian church began to go downhill when it became state religion, post Constantine. “Give unto Ceasar…” went out the window. If we Christians deleted ONLY son of G-d, I think that would help. I believe we are all part of the divine creation, hence “sons of G-d.”

the problem is that Jews are leaving their own to the Christians to deal with because there’s such a need to focus on the Holocaust-give $ to Israel, climb the ladder of the corporate carousel, materialism is part of the Jewish faith, etc what we hear over and over. And the Christians essentially still spit on Jews-it’s not really a new religion-they know and are interested really in nothing about it, except the “kabbalah’. The Catholic church , with all their sins and abuse-there’s always been a part of them that have followed the example of Jesus. it might be worth, while Jews-we-try to get some theory here straightened out with the Christians, that we do more ourselves-stop rejecting our own, putting them innut wards, casting off people who don’t behave, or who aren’t as materialistic as we would like. Stop supporting the wealthy, and start supportive systems for the growing poor and underclass. L’Shanah Tovah.

the problem also is that Jesus is Jewish, not Catholic or Christian, and lived a Jewish life, and acted as a Jew. that might be pointed out also, and there’s more and more evidence that’s coming out to that effect.

i like Jesus a whole lot. and also was rejected,both my mothers were rejected also by organized Judaism-the first mother was from an Orthodox background, the second, not so-. and i’ve been continuously rejected. the Catholics were much more accepting and helpful to me-but i did not need their indoctrination of Jew-hate. my mothers suffered all their lives from Jewish rejection, neither abandoned their Jewishness. i’m not going to services-i’m still conflicted-perhaps it will make me strong in the end-squabbling about words doesn’t take the place of action on the street. the world is critical of today’s Judaism, because as a group, we’re not acting as Jews, we’re too fixed on the criminal state of Israel and blowing the shofar for the Holocaust that the goyim are less than zero interested in.